Lovie Smith has been trying to get safety Adam Archuleta since he arrived in Chicago. Smith was Archuleta's defensive coordinator in St. Louis.

On Tuesday, the Bears completed a trade that brings the Redskins safety to Smith and the Bears. The Bears gave up a 2007 draft choice, believed to be a sixth-round choice.

Archuleta struggled in his first season with the Redskins in 2006 and was scheduled to be a backup this season in Washington.

To complete this complicated deal, the Bears had to rework his contract. Archuleta had a guaranteed $5 million option bonus that was due last week. With hopes of getting a trade, Archuleta delayed the execution of that option bonus until Wednesday.

Faced with the deadline, everyone worked on getting a deal done. The Bears will pay Archuleta $8.1 million over the next three years. The Redskins rid themselves of his $25 million contract. A total of $5 million of Archuleta's new deal in Chicago is guaranteed.

The Bears were looking for a playmaker at the safety position. Smith created defenses involving Archuleta when they were in St. Louis. In Chicago, Archuleta will have more opportunities to make plays at the line of scrimmage.

I wonder what the cap hit is for the Redskins in terms of dead money with the reworked contract?

Seems like this was making the best of a very bad situation for both sides - Archuleta got his money upfront from the Skins, and cutting him on the existing contract would have been a HUGE cap hit to swallow - but it was clear he wasn't going to be playing a lot there either.

So he agrees to rework his contract to ease the hit for Washington, still gets a pretty decent payday from Chicago, has all the signing bonus from Washington still, and might actually get to play and revive his career in Chicago.

Let this be a lesson to players who take the highest amount of money in the future when its just a very very bad match. Sure they get a big payday, but it can kill a career.

how is this bad for Washington? they got something for a guy they wanted to get rid of.

signing him in the first place was a mistake, but what's done is done. you can't undo the past, so make the best deals going forward.

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Sure, they are at least recouping something on their terrible investment, but it's bad because they made a terrible investment and are selling Archuleta for two cents on the dollar.

I honestly don't know what I would do if I were a Skins fan. It must be maddening. And just think, Gibbs will likely retire in a year and they will have to watch the whole horrific 8-8 cycle start all over again.